Wallace defends his title 

Not even the snow or a mild case of hypothermia could stop Cory Wallace, who took home first place honours in the Bow 80, in Kananskis Country, on Sunday after coming a close second in Squamish on Saturday. 

The Jasperite was in Kananskis Country to defend his title, which he won in 4:56:21, and finished about six seconds ahead of his nearest competitor in 4:40:02.

“It was an epic day,” said Wallace, “it’s probably the coldest day I’ve ever had on a bike.”

Adding to the temperature woes was the all night drive he pulled to get to Kananskis Country at around 4 a.m. Sunday from Whistler, where he completed his first race of the weekend at around 2 p.m. Just minutes behind the winner – a strong national team member, that Wallace said he was happy to finish behind. 

“It was like the two of us fighting to the end, and I just didn’t have what it took,” he said noting that they were battling it out until the last eight or ten kilometres. 

While the race on Saturday was a little wet, Wallace said it was a pleasant 15C. “We got a little bit wet, but it was fun.”

Sunday, however, proved to be a winters day in the Rockies with the Jasperite’s brief four hour sleep – spent in a sleeping bag on the back of a truck – interrupted by hail until he found refuge under a pine tree. 

“It was an ugly day,” he said, “I didn’t know if I was going to be able to (win) when I turned up.

The race began with a bit of rain, and temperatures of about plus two, but as the race went on and the elevation rose, Wallace said it began sleeting before getting down to about -2 and snowing.

As soon as Wallace finished, he was pulled into the medical tent for an hour where they said he was “on the edge of hypothermia”.

“It kind of gives the mountain guys an advantage,” he said, “because we’re kind of used to it.”

Even for the mountain racer, who said he enjoys these conditions, this race was tougher than normal especially given most racers started the race without even a jacket.

“It was cool. I like it when it goes kind of heinous like that, but that was kind of pushing it.”

Despite being from Jasper, and somewhat used to these conditions, Wallace said the last hour he was on “auto-pilot”.

“The last hour the body was messed up,” he explained, “you couldn’t feel anything.”

To combat the conditions, the racer said he was jogging up hills and coasting down hill so that he could keep his body warm, and minimize the wind chill. 

“I said to one of the riders, let’s just coast down these hills, because if you go too fast you’re going to get chills,” he said.

“It was at the point we don’t know what to do... so we were jogging up hill just to keep the body warm.”

According to Wallace, there was a lot of accidents as many racers couldn’t stop on the downhill because their hands were just too cold. 

The two race weekend is an end to another busy season for Wallace. The Jasperite has a couple months off before he heads down to Costa Rica where he’ll be part of a Canadian team taking part in a 12 day stage race.